


The Worst Distance

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Altered Mental States, Angst and Romance, Bittersweet Ending, Borderline Personality Disorder, Episode: s04e14 The Next Doctor, F/M, Life After the Doctor, Mistaken Identity, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship, Multiple Personalities, Possibly Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-12 15:50:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2115750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>The worst distance between two people is a misunderstanding.<em></em></em>
</p><p> </p><p>When Rose Tyler jumps dimensions, she accidentally pops up in the timelines of multiple Doctors—Jackson Lake, the Next Doctor, included.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Worst Distance

There were still times when Jackson Lake fell back to the fugue—most often it was in the winter, on that one day when the nightmarish memories of his wife’s death came back in full force. 

Usually he stayed in on that day, not wanting to hurt someone with whatever Doctoral mindset he was lapsing into. But this year he had been pleasantly surprised by the absence of the Doctor’s tension, his craving for danger that he could plow through and feel good about at the end of the day. Most of all, Jackson was glad he didn’t feel the heartbreak of a lone Time Lord.

That should’ve alerted him. If he had been Jackson Lake, as he ought to be, he would have felt the heartbreak of a widower. That wasn’t there either, so he went out to the market. The telltale signs began there. He felt the presence of a ring on his finger even though there wasn’t one; he paused longer than usual at the homeless flute player, giving him a musical tip he hadn't known before; he wished he had a cape and ruffles that he could swish so Jo and the Brigadier would think he was even more brilliant, fantastic, _molto bene_ than usual—

He was the Doctor, so he needed to go to the TARDIS! Jackson dropped his groceries and bolted, his mind fixated on his beautiful machine he’d stolen from the planet Gallifrey even after he’d failed his TARDIS license test...

The giant balloon was in sight and the Doctor smiled broadly, ready to leap into it and twirl off into time and space. What a perfect chameleon circuit, disguising his ship as a hot-air balloon! Then he stopped short, his eyes widening when he saw a golden-haired girl standing near the basket, running her hand over it.

 _Who’s that?_ the memories of Doctor One through Eight wondered, but Nine knew. Jackson’s Nine mind caught up and he faltered a single step forward, calling out in shock:

“Rose? _My_ Rose?”

Rose Tyler whirled at the sound of his voice. She probably wasn’t supposed to reveal herself to any stranger, but she couldn’t stop herself from demanding, “Oi, mister, what do you mean, ‘your’ Rose?”

“It _is_ you!” the Doctor gasped, bolting forward and dragging her into a suffocating embrace. “Rose Tyler, I can’t tell how overjoyed I am to see you!” he cried, pressing his cheek against her soft hair. For a moment he eyed the gun slung over Rose’s right shoulder, but he disregarded it for the moment.

Rose stiffened even further than she already had. “Doctor?” she muttered in shock against his shirt. Pulling away to look him over, she asked in awe, “But which one are you?”

“The one and only!” was the immediate answer. 

“But what’re you doing here?”

“I’m protecting London Town,” he replied proudly. “Isn’t that what I always do?”

“Yeh, I guess, but...” Rose had a lot of emotions pooling on her face at once. She was obviously glad to see him, but she was also rather confused. “Which regeneration are you?” she asked at last. “I know you’re after my Doctor, both of them, so you’re the...eleventh?”

The Doctor shrugged. “I don’t really remember regenerating. All I know is here I am and I’m the Doctor!”

“You’re the current Doctor?” Rose stressed.

“There are different timelines, Rose, where all of my other selves are still alive—” he started to explain, but Rose sighed crossly and rolled her eyes.

“Don’t remind me. First I found that old one who tried to hypnotize me with his ring, then that other one with the scarf—he was nicer, but he practically tried to cram jelly babies down my throat—and then the one with the multicolored coat who kissed me after I told him we were in love...” She trailed off, noticing his thoughtful expression. “Doctor?”

“I don’t remember any of that,” he commented. “I must have had selective memory loss so I wouldn’t cause a paradox.” Leaning forward, he tried to take her hand but paused when she moved it away. “We _are_ still...?” he started, searching her expression.

“Yeh...I just have to get used to you again,” Rose laughed hesitantly.

The Doctor nodded in understanding. “Ah, well, would a flight in the TARDIS help?”

After a moment Rose nodded back in agreement. “Where is it?”

Laughing, the Doctor patted the hot-air balloon basket. Rose gasped, leaping back from the balloon. “What?! You fixed the chameleon circuit?”

“I can’t remember doing it, but I must have!” the Doctor answered cheerfully. “I think it looks lovely.”

Rose didn’t seem to know what she thought of it, but she put her hands on the sides and started to hoist herself up into it. That seemed to be a good start, the Doctor decided, putting a hand at her back to steady her. Rose glanced over her shoulder at him and he grinned encouragingly in return before untying the tethers on the basket and clambering in next to her.

As he fired up the gas, the Doctor announced, “So you say you’ve met some of my other incarnations?”

“Yes, I’ve been jumping dimensions,” Rose admitted.

The Doctor had an urge to ask why, but he decided that was a question for later. “That reminds me of a time when the Cybermen came here using a dimension portal. I met a strange man, John Smith, who helped me defeat them. Here we go!”

As the balloon slowly lifted from the ground, Rose asked, “Where are the TARDIS controls?”

“I’m using them now! How do you think we’re flying?” the Doctor asked rhetorically. “John Smith flew it first and I followed in his footsteps.”

“John Smith,” Rose echoed. “The same John Smith who helped you defeat the Cybermen?”

“Yes.”

“So someone else owned the TARDIS before you?”

“No.” The Doctor sighed in response to Rose’s rather unsettled glance. “Can we not just enjoy what’s around us?”

Rose contemplated the question and agreed at last, “Sure, we can.” So she pulled off the large blaster hung on her shoulder and set it on the ground, turning and leaning her back against his chest, pulling his open coat around her sort of like a blanket and holding it in place.

The Doctor hummed in satisfaction. “We’ve done this before, haven’t we? I seem to remember a leather jacket that served this purpose...”

Rose shook her head minutely and he shut his mouth, settling his hands just above the insides of her elbows and keeping her close.

**v^v^v^v**

The Doctor burst into his temporary residence, calling, “Rosita! Come meet my companion! Well, my _other_ companion!”

The black woman emerged as soon as she heard his voice, demanding, “Where have you been, Mr. Lake? I thought you were just going for groceries, but you’ve been gone for hours!”

“Lake?” The Doctor sputtered. “My dear girl, why do you keep bringing up that murdered man? That was so many winters ago. It’s not decent to talk about that on a whim!”

Rosita’s eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. Before she could speak again, however, Rose appeared at the Doctor’s elbow.

“Ah, there you are!” the Doctor exclaimed warmly. “Rose, this is my current companion, Rosita. Rosita, this is Rose Tyler. She’s fantastic!”

The Doctor was puzzled when both flowery-named girls met each other’s eyes in stony silence. “What’s the matter?” he asked.

“Mr. La—” Rosita pressed her eyes closed momentarily. “ _Doctor_...I need to talk with you in private.”

“Whatever you have to say to me, Rose can hear it too,” the Doctor protested, but Rosita shook her head violently, her dark curls whipping back and forth.

“No, this is just between you and me.”

Wondering what could be so secretive between them, the Doctor acquiesced and followed Rosita into a separate room.

Rosita’s calm exterior crumbled as soon as the door closed behind them. Pacing back and forth, she agonized, “I should have known not to let you out by yourself, I should have gone with you to prevent this from happening, cos now you’ve gone and picked up some strange girl—”

“She’s not some strange girl!” the Doctor cried indignantly. “She’s Rose Tyler! She’s my most precious friend; no, more than that, She’s...” He hesitated, lowering his voice as he admitted, “She’s my inamorata.” Smiling demurely, he continued, “Long lost—how, I don’t recall—but I must tell you, Rosita, it has been haunting me and I haven’t even realized it! For her to find me again is a miracle in and of itself and the worst distance is that between two people who love each other, is it not?”

Rosita had stopped pacing and now stood in front of him with grief in her eyes. The Doctor studied her until he couldn’t stand it any longer and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Rose isn’t the woman you lost,” she answered sadly. “It was your wife, Caroline.”

The Doctor froze, a chill spreading down his spine at the name. It was familiar, _too_ familiar...

Screaming, the crackling of electricity, the dull thud of a lifeless body and his own helpless wails. The pleas of his son fading in the distance, the painful jolt of information violating his mind, giving him the two hearts that were even more broken than his one.

Jackson Lake collapsed to the floor, curling his knees up to his chest and staring straight ahead. “Forgive me, Caroline,” he whispered. “I’m ashamed. I’ve loved another!”

“No,” Rosita disagreed, crouching next to him. “The Doctor loved her.”

Jackson glanced at her, unable to see her even before the tears welled in his eyes and throat, strangling him.

Rose must have heard him sobbing, because she burst into the room, kneeling on his other side and glaring venomously at Rosita. “What did you say to the Doctor?!” she asked furiously.

When he felt her hand closing down on his shoulder, Jackson lurched away, gasping, “I’m not the Doctor!”

Rose gaped at him. “But you have to be! You knew things—”

“That only the Doctor knows, yes,” Jackson agreed miserably. “The Doctor and I.”

Trying to rationalize this, Rose asked timidly, “Are you a psychic?”

“No,” Rosita answered for him quietly. “Let’s give him some space and I’ll explain it to you.”

“No,” Jackson said back at her, forcing himself to gather his wits. He took a shaky breath. “I want to explain it. It’s my fault Rose is...compromised.”

That was putting it mildly, he realized, seeing the dismay and heartbreak on the blonde girl’s face. Trying not to commit that expression to memory and failing horribly, the math teacher began to tell her what had happened many winters before. Rose listened without a word, her expressions barely changing throughout the entire story.

“Sometimes, usually around this time, I have relapses,” Jackson confessed. “I had a false hope that today would be different.” Not meeting Rose’s eyes, he murmured, “I’m so sorry for the confusion.”

“It’s not your fault,” Rose told him in a firm tone of voice that shouldn’t have betrayed her sorrow but did anyway. “I had false hope about today too.” Thus she stood, pulling him up with her, and hugged him briefly. “I’m going to get my gun from your balloon,” she announced when she pulled away.

“I know I don’t have the right to ask this,” Jackson blurted out, “but I want to offer reparation for your trouble. Will you please stay for a meal?”

Rose nodded slowly. “Sure.” Steadily she pivoted and left the house. Jackson stood stiff and silent, knowing that would the last he saw of her.

He was right.


End file.
